und the waist, and drawn him a captive into the canoe.

"Brothers," protested the captive, who seems to have been either a
Huron slave or an Iroquois magician, "your enemies are spread up and
down! Sleep not! They have heard your noise! They wait for you!
They are sure of their prey! Believe me--keep together! Spend not
your powder in vain to frighten your enemies by noise! See that the
stones of your arrows be not bent! Bend your bows! Keep your hatchets
sharp! Build a fort! Make haste!"

But the Algonquins, intoxicated with the new power of firearms, would
hear no warning. They did not understand his words and refused to heed
Radisson's interpretation. Beating paddles on their canoes and firing
off guns, they shouted derisively that the man was "a dog and a hen."
All the same, they did not land to encamp that night, but slept in
midstream, with their boats tied to the rushes or on the lee side of
floating trees. The French lost heart. If this were the beginning,
what of the end? Daylight had scarcely broken when the paddles of the
eager _voyageurs_ were cutting the thick gray mist that rose from the
river to get away from observation while the fog still hid the fleet.
From afar came the dull, heavy rumble of a waterfall.[6]

There was a rush of the twelve foremost canoes to reach the landing and
cross the _portage_ before the thinning mist lifted entirely. Twelve
boats had got ashore when the fog was cleft by a tremendous crashing of
guns, and Iroquois ambushed in the bordering forest let go a salute of
musketry. Everything was instantly in confusion. Abandoning their
baggage to the enemy, the Algonquins and French rushed for the woods to
erect a barricade. This would protect the landing of the other canoes.
The Iroquois immediately threw up a defence of fallen logs likewise,
and each canoe that came ashore was greeted with a cross fire between
the two barricades. Four canoes were destroyed and thirteen of the
Indians from the Upper Country killed. As day wore on, the Iroquois'
shots ceased, and the Algonquins celebrated the truce by killing and
devouring all the prisoners they had taken, among whom was the magician
who had given them warning. Radisson and Groseillers wondered if the
Iroquois were reserving their powder for a night raid. The Algonquins
did not wait to know. As soon as darkness fell, there was a wild
scramble for the shore. A long, low trumpet call, such as hunters use,
signa